Assessment of the Usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Fish Farming among Smallholder Fish Farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) usage on fish farming among smallholder fish farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. The objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of fish farmers, ascertain the types of ICT tools used, determine the ICT accessibility levels, investigate the effect of usage and identify constraints to ICT adoption in fish farming. A multistage method was used randomly select a total of 300 respondents  from the population of smallholder fish farmers  in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection which were analyzed with the aid of descriptive (frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics (linear regression). The findings showed that, mobile phones (23.58%) and WhatsApp (12.41%) were the most used ICT tools among the fish farmers. The results of the regression analysis showed that, internet (0.2076 at 1% significance), television (0.3728 at 1% significance), desktops (0.8212 at 1% significance), sex (0.1758 at 5% significance), fish pond capacity (0.21-9 at 5% significance) and laptop (-0.6341 at 1% significance) statistically influenced ICT usage for fish farming. The major constraints based on the outcome of the study are lack of awareness (10.87%), inadequate ICT knowledge (5.35%), and low income (10.69%), high cost of ICT facilities (9.37%), inconsistent government policies (9.15%), and low education levels (8.31%). The results of the study showed that, ICT usage enhances fish farming activities and the author thereby recommends friendly policies that will enhance ICT accessibility and literacy among fish farmers.